First Test, day three (lunch): England (215 & 157-4) lead Australia (280) by
92 runs

It was a relatively quiet third Ashes morning for the neutral observer as 77 runs were scored for the loss of two England wickets.

For everyone else in the sun-baked Nottingham crowd it was painfully nerve-wracking as every time England got a nose in front, Australia hacked it off.

It was all going swimmingly well for England in the first hour as Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen reached their personal 50s and took England to a lead of 56. Visions of victory - to atone for all the over-hyped shot-selection of England's first innings - opened up.

Then Pietersen was dismissed for 64, and Cook soon followed for 50, his equal-slowest half-century in Tests. England thus found themselves at 66 for four, in effect, and behind in the game once again.

Pietersen had played so consistently straight against Australia's seamers, driving boundaries straight past the stumps. But he deviated from this path to drive at James Pattinson with his bat at 45 degrees and dragged into his stumps.

Cook was undone by the miracle-worker of the second day, Ashton Agar. Or maybe Agar's Test debut is not a surprise at all because it is merely an extension of his first-class debut for Western Australia against Queensland earlier this year.

Agar then scored a valuable second innings of 53 at No 10, and followed up with vital wickets, doing the job with his left-arm spin.

On this occasion Agar landed in the rough outside Cook's offstump and the ball, instead of turning as Cook expected, simply bounced, and took the edge as Cook aimed to leg.

Even then a lot of work remained to be done to secure the dismissal of England's captain, and it was done by Michael Clarke. To England's chagrin he is left-handed - and made a leaping left-handed catch that few slips would have caught.

When Ian Bell and Jonny Bairstow began to settle in and nudge England's lead towards 100, again the alarm-bells were rung - by Pattinson in a fine spell of reverse-swing from the pavilion end.

To make batting even harder, the over-dry pitch provided increasingly uneven bounce for the pace bowlers to exploit.

Any target over 200 on such a pitch would be very difficult. But England at the interval, with Bell on 20 and Bairstow 13, had a long way to go to achieve such a comfortable position.